Videos

Friday is Valentine’s Day, that special day wherein we celebrate patriarchal norms and reinforce insulting gender stereotypes with rampant consumerism.

So romantic.

Valentine’s Day is one of the those special “off” days that happen every-so-often in the strip club. Working the night of one these off days is never business-as-usual—it’s usually, business-as-oh-my-God-did-that-just-happen. The day of Cupid falls on a Friday this year, and there’s going to be a full moon.

VICE sent a reporter to Florida to report on the ass shot underground, where not-doctors inject everything from Fix-A-Flat to mineral oil into the buttocks of those seeking a bigger booty. Last week the accompanying documentary debuted online, and it’s worth watching, but be warned that the images of procedures-gone-wrong are horrifying. Reporter Wilbert Cooper talks to Miami-area plastic surgeons and follows Corey Eubanks, who is on probation for charges related to an association with Oneal Ron Morris, “The Duchess,” who had one of her clients die from complications from injections (there is some misgendering of Morris at the beginning of the documentary when Cooper is speaking with a detective about the case). There’s a segment in famous Miami strip club King of Diamonds where Cooper interviews dancers about their procedures and one dancer tells him that she estimates 75% of her coworkers have had some kind of ass augmentation.

A friend sent me this video last week, rightly pegging it as relevant to my interests. The song is “The Way Out” by Porcelain Raft, the performing name of multi-instrumentalist Mauro Remiddi. It is expansive and atmospheric electronic pop that might be a little too downbeat for a packed club but, as in the video, a perfect track for a quiet afternoon shift. The video stars a very capable pole dancer, employs an elegant one-shot format, and has a subdued mood. It’s more Exotica than Showgirls. Its events threatened to upset me, but the story has a satisfyingly dark conclusion. I reached out to director Michael Lawrence to ask him about his process. Watch the video and read our Q&A below.

We are so excited about this new stripper reality show, set to air this fall, about strippers at the Stadium Club in Washington D.C. Strippers show up on reality television often enough, but there still hasn’t been a strip club show, and this looks to deliver. According to the Washington Post, it will air on a network to be named. They’re speculating it will be VH1, which would be a crushing loss for Bravo.

Minnesota teen Mike Stone spammed adult performers on Twitter to find a prom date (if I’d gotten one of those messages, I would have blocked the kid, but it goes to show that spam works), and Megan Piper said yes. When his school heard about it, they forbid him from bringing her. What a buzzkill. Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams interviewed the pair and a concerned area mother—who had some great sex ed tips—for a segment that aired last week, and we love it.

“And we all know that if you do something for a living, that’s all you ever do. Like how pro football players tackle everyone they see, and therefore would never be allowed at prom.”